Quotes About Diplomacy

Bilaterals are like building blocks for multilaterals.

I'll never burn a bridge.

Obama has succeeded in descending even below George W. Bush in approval in the Arab world. It's minuscule, few percent.

The U.S. has always sought to sow intrigue against Iran but has never succeeded in the face of Iran's greatness.

Successful diplomacy is an alignment of objectives and means.

You aren't going to be successful as a diplomat if you don't understand the strategic context in which you are actually negotiating. It is not deal making. It's not.

We would all rather see Iraq resolved successfully.

I used to say I never talk about my successor, neither about my predecessor.

People can be sensitive, so if I need to, I'll suck it up and be more flowery. I'll do what it takes to get the outcome I want. As I like to say, sometimes you have to crouch to conquer.

I rage when Boris Johnson is more interested in sucking up to Donald Trump than standing up for British values of decency, equality and respect.

Sudan expelled bin Laden on May 18, 1996, to Afghanistan.

An effective U.S. policy toward Sudan - one capable of changing the situation in the south and affecting the lives of its people - will require top-level attention and a great deal of energy. It should have three elements: aid, diplomacy, and financial disclosure.

We want peace and development in all 10 states of South Sudan - we don't want military backing.

The only foreign policy advice I heard from China was when they said to Sudan, 'Don't go back to war.' That's all they said. They didn't push anything else.

My last passport, I had North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Liberia, Guinea... I had, like, every war-torn country in there.

My own country, Slovakia, has been there for South Sudan and its people. We made South Sudan a priority country of our official development assistance and humanitarian aid.

I think the way to think about the impact of Hiroshima is to think about it as a sudden shift in the balance of power.

The United States plays, for the most part, a constructive global role, and to the extent that that role shrinks, other countries, even those most critical of what America does abroad, will suffer.

We should never suffer Cuba to pass from the hands of Spain to any other European power.

Iranians have suffered economically under the U.S.-led sanctions.

I think it's possible that China is ready for a serious change regarding its North Korean defector policy. Chinese people are starting to realize that so many defectors have been suffering in China, and it doesn't have to be this way.

The more rational an institution is the less it suffers by making concessions to others.

If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another... after the war is on.

I'm interested in internationalism. It's the new multiculturalism. How we deal with each other isn't sufficient any more. It's about time we examine how we interact with the rest of the world we live in.